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so, i have this really bad tendancy/habit to roll over my head... like a gymnastics style roll. i used to roll really nicely... then i got injured... and now i roll very un-aikido like.

last night, i was paired with kh so he could go over basics with me and try to straighten me out. as we were going over basics and i was starting to roll over the parts i was supposed to roll over, i realised why i stopped rolling correctly... shoulder spasms. if i roll over my head, i needed angle my head and stretch out those muscles.

then again, maybe it was just the exercises we were going through?

i dunno. i think this weekend, i will take out some mats and go over those exercises again and see if i can apply it on my own. i'd really like to roll properly, again.

when in doubt, train! when you hurt, train! when you feel sick, train! just... train!!

anyway, wednesday night class was fun. we went over some 1st kyu techniques. easy peasy pie. not really... but i like to say easy peasy pie right now. nah... it was neat. a bit more complicated... but neat. stuff like, kata tori tsuki kotegaeshi. when brian and i looked at the 1st kyu requirements we were like... "WTF?! how is this going to work?!" but seeing it in action put our worried little minds to rest.

i think i am going to have to take a "no ukemi" route for a few weeks. my neck/back is/are locked up again and i'm having some spasms in my shoulder again. it's time to visit Dr. Fred and have him adjust me... and then it's to see Shandy so she can knead some of these knots out of my back. stupid old injuries that won't heal. blah.

weapon's class tonight. wahoo! will only be there for 2/3's of the class. i've gotta do some last minute laundry for my camping trip this weekend. argh.

who knew it could be so fun? sure, when i had to demonstrate it on a test almost a year or so ago, i had the most awful time figuring out which way to turn. we went over 8th kyu requirements last night. for the most part, it was most fun. now, i'm not saying i'm perfectly adept in the ways of the 8th kyu requirements, but this time round, it was a lot easier than it was back in the day.

ken was my partner for most the night. we did kaiten nage the "correct" way with uke pushing and pulling and nage going with the flow and tenkan-ing. ken is like super strong and so little old me just tenkan-ed and ken was flying across the mats. eeks. the first time we did it with such energy, uke was pulling slightly. i wasn't prepared so as ken went down, i went flying over him and almost into the indoor bikes. i don't think sensei was very impressed. lol

the second round was uke pulling slightly. ken was pushing and i tenkan-ed and he said he had to either take the roll or take a hard fall. eeks. either aren't too good for his should at this point in time. i told him "this is all your doing, remember" because he was giving me way too much energy to work with.

basics are good. we don't go over basics too often. and basics change so i'm never sure which is basic basic. it irks me when upper belts are asked to go over test material with lower belts separately and the lower belt goes, "that's not how sensei taught it". grrr. so, i go "show me how sensei is teachin
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Friday: Weapon's night. Ken and I tested in the Progressive System taught by Mr. Gonzales. Ken was going for his... I forgot... advanced orange? All's I recall is him getting a stripe. I got my purple.

I kinda loused up Reverse Sinawali at first... but I kept at it and eventually it came back. Not too shabby for only having a week and a half to work on it. It's kinda an awkward technique because it goes against the way your body wants to naturally move. But once you get it, it can be kinda fun.

After that, we worked on some Kevin Blok stuff in preparation for his arrival next month. We did tanto tan do ku kata dai ni a few times. Then we worked with the jo and did the continuous strike thrust something or other. It's basically, well, all of the basic jo strikes and some blocks but done in a continuous motion. Once you do once side, you turn around and do the otherside. Then we did the 10 sword cuts Blok shihan showed us last year. We're getting a lot better at them.

I think I was going through an ADD night (no offense to those who have ADD, by the way) or something. While my mind was clear and present, I kept being aware of everything in the room. Blah. I wasn't able to fixate my focus and concentration on Sensei.

We called class early so we could have a little good-bye celebration for Elliott. He's moving down to Southern California with his parents. I think Elliott's been with us for close to a year. We wished him best of luck and had two
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Brian tested for his 3rd kyu on Monday. I think he passed. I don't know yet. Should know next week. He did really good, but the techniques we practised a few weeks ago weren't the ones he did on his test. Tucker Sensei had to show him the proper ones to do... and those were the ones we did a few weeks ago on a Saturday AM training session (note, not a class). I wonder if maybe our other training sempai might have confused him? I haven't been doing my Saturday AM training in a while as I've been enjoying the great outdoors.

I'll be testing for 3rd kyu... mid next month. Okay... actually in about 2-3 weeks. But Blok Shihan is visiting next week. I think I'll not send submit an application until after that. So.. end of July? I dunno.

Testing in Arnis tonight for my purple belt. Eeks. The goal is to avoid injury between now (3:56pm) and 6:30pm. The last time I tested... that afternoon, I pulled a muscle. Then, I had to go buy a cake. At the cake aisle in Raley's, the muscle spasmed and I was unable to move my leg for a while. I called both Tucker Sensei and Mr. Gonzales and told them that I might be a tad late to class that Friday night... and that I had pulled a muscle and I didn't know how I was going to do on my test.

Mr. Gonzales tested me anyway. I did two techniques and my test was over. He knew from my "pre tests" that I could perform the techniques well enough at my level. I think the grimace I displayed on my face as my muscle tig
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last night, guy williams sensei taught our monday night class. very cool. we bowed in, did warm ups, followed by ukemi. williams sensei watched our ukemi, then took over the class. he critiqued our back rolls, stating that we might find it better if we extended more... like tossing a bucket over our shoulder. when he did it, it looked great. so, he incorporated it into a technique he had us do.

being me, i got all confused with the technique, then having to do the ukemi with the extension williams-sensei suggested we try. i think out of all i did, i managed to do two successfully! so, now i've a challenge to overcome mentally as i've blocked myself from doing backwards rolls.

next, williams sensei had us to forward ukemi from another technique. i'm still new to actually rolling out of a technique... so that was interesting. my right side wasn't behaving as my shoulder started to do weird things again. so, i walked out of the technique on that side and rolled properly on my left.

williams sensei had us to a few more techniques, teaching us the entire technique bit by bit. it was very fun to do, a new twist on an "old" technique.

also, watching williams sensei on the mat... he's very smooth, very fluid. he seems to have great control over his body. he's also very open and helpful. very encouraging.

tonight, we will be learning arnis, and some knife/tanto techniques. wahoo!
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current status: argh, monday
location: home, playing hookie from work
sounds: travis, "writing to reach you"

ken's test was yesterday. it was very awsesome. eventually, i'll get around to putting up some pictures

tucker-sensei went through the requirements from 9th kyu on up, having ken do a bit of this and a bit of that.

according to tucker-sensei, ken's test was one of better than average tests for 2nd kyu that he's ever seen.

there were a bunch of us that showed up to support ken. we were all used as uke. even me, who took over 100 pictures of the test with the digital camera, who designated myself as backup backup uke. what has this taught me? one, i now know which side of the dojo i should stand on to get the better pictures (more light). two, ken rocks. three, our dojo rocks.

after a while, i kinda got a bit determined with my pictures... i wanted action pictures. i wanted to see people halfway in the air, or legs flaying, for funny "aikido smiles". i kinda got what i wanted.

we should have another 2nd kyu test in the next few months, hopefully. kevin is 3rd kyu, i think. but he is a bit behind because of real life issues.

on another note, guy williams sensei will be visiting us today, tomorrow, and wednesday. guy williams is an advocate of aikibudo. williams-sensei was someone whose sensei was take-sensei (steven seagall). unfortunately, i don't recall williams-sensei's sensei's name. i do have pictures of him though, as i h
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class tonight was fun. i brought cupcakes to celebrate a few things. sarah obtaining her 4th kyu rank, and jeff obtaining his green belt in tang soo do. also, tj gonzales tested some of us for our advanced white belts in modern arnis/the progressive system. we all passed. roman had us doing some more advanced techniques, but hey... we all rocked.

so, after our short test, we joined the rest of the class. we went over the basic takeaways for strikes 1-9. very awesome since i think i'm pretty adept with 1-4. five was a toughie... but i worked with roman and he was pretty awesome with his patience.

after the arnis section, we took a mini break... and grabbed our tanto. we proceeded to do two kevin blok shihan kata. i'm not sure if they are those of his own making, or if they were created by others... either way, there are three and we learned (again) the first two. perhaps next week or the week after, we will learn how to do the kata two-person. the kata is designed, nage with tanto, uke with bokken.

then we picked up the jo staff. to my surprise, i actually knew more of the two jo kata than brian did. egad. i didn't realise he didn't know the second to last hidden strike, which explains why he was totally lost when i tried explaining it to him. luckily, sarah came to the rescue and mentioned it. she also showed me hidden strikes for #13, and #17. i guess i'm ready to work on those now.
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